Labour's social development spokesperson Jacinda Adern says they will now have to cope with fewer resources and enormous upheaval.

"Ask anyone who's working on the frontline if you don't have the people who are working at a supportive level behind you, then you're going to have issues on the front interface with clients.

"We're seeing people at a regional level now being told that they're going to go through a review right through to the end of the year which may result in their job not existing - that's just sounds to me like a recipe for chaos."

The Public Service Association says the union was left completely in the dark about the planned job cuts. National secretary Brenda Pilott says they are still trying to work out exactly what's going on.

"A lot of uncertainty still - we don't know which jobs are being talked about, we don't know where, we don't know exactly what process is going to be gone through.

"We think this is rotten timing of the part of MSD (the Ministry of Social Development) to introduce the restructuring just when people are at peak workload like this."

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett would not comment on the cuts on Thursday, other than to say it is an operational matter.